Look On The Bright Side, Target: At Least These 3 Credit Card Hacks Were Bigger Than Yours
Target is probably having a very unmerry holiday season right now dealing with the credit card breach that likely affected about 40 million accounts. Target might be the retail version of a sad Charlie Brown at Christmas right now, but hey, it could be worse. No, really.
CNNMoney goes through five big breaches that make Target’s hack look like a drop in the bucket. Of course, any time consumers see their personal information leaking out to who knows where it’s bad. But the below three have numbers that eclipse Target’s latest worry.
Adobe: About 150 million customers were hit by hackers this fall, although at first Adobe had the number at about 2.9 million… and then 38 million. It wasn’t until a security blog claimed that hackers had actually published info for 150 million of Adobe’s customers that the ginormous scale of the hack came to light. Adobe sticks by its original number, however.
Heartland Payment Systems: A widespread attack on this company affected 130 million customers with a variety of different credit cards. The company ended up paying out more than $110 million to settle claims with Visa, MasterCard, American Express and others.
TJX Companies: Way back in 2007, this hack hit a laundry list of TJX stores — T.J. Maxx and Marshalls included — which stung around 94 million shoppers. Initially the company said 46 million customers were hacked, but later court filings related to bank lawsuits aimed at TJX showed the much higher total.
Sadly enough, we’re sure this won’t be the last time dastardly villains get their hands on private information. Remember that if you think your credit info is at risk to keep checking your statements, call your bank or credit card issuer (in the most recent case, Target) and change any PINs or passwords associated with the account.
Of all the Charlie Browns in the world right now, Target, you’re the Charlie Browniest.
5 of the biggest-ever credit card hacks [CNNMoney]
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